The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1887-08-24

saying goes, ana SG0Ou E1efe and LaceU
them and knew that 1 was doomed to
the most horrible tortmes they could m
vent.
They did not keep me long In waiting.
The knowledge of my identity whetued
their savage appetites, and while the
warriors who captured us were eating
breakfast the rest of the village was astir
with preparations. The camp was in a
bit of valley ON the left bank of Smoky
Hill Fork, and two young trees were cut
down. trimmed to proper length. and
then driven into the ground in the center
of the village. The one intended for me
was almost In front of my tepee, and
and j stood at the entrance and saw the
the young man drive It into the earth.
More than that, / sung out to them in
steady voice, in their own dialect:
s.A stake like that to hold the Long
Deathl You shall see how he win tear it
upr'
My words were received with shouts of
satisfaction. No people on earth respect
courage in q man as much as the Indians.
They are no less cruel 70 game man,
but his gameness will shorten his torture.
Feeling that my time had come, and
hoping to provoke some of them to shoot
or tomahawk me, called out the names
of half dozen of the tribe whom had
sent to the happy hunting grounds. Some
of the young men fairly rayed to get at
me, but the order of the chief was to wait.
I boasted that could outshoot, outride
and outrun their best men, and offered
to fight any six of them, if they would
turn me loose, but all this talk only gave
them the more satisfaction In thinking of
the torture in store for me. On thesam
principle that people eat their pie last,
the Indians led Sewell out first. His con-
dition was such that but little fun could
be anticipated from his torture. He was
large, fine looking man, but the result
of his spree and of his capture was to
break him down. He had no more courage
than a child, and it was pitiful to see him
weap and hear his lamentations. beg
ged of the Indians to let him go, stating
that he was civilian who had never in
jured them, and was so broken down
that he could not live long, and but for
the hotheaded young men in the tribe /
should have got him off. They urged
that he was assisting to build the railroad
which was driving the game and the
Indian out of the country, and that the
white men never spared a warrior because
he was i'll. Such talk as this settled it,
and the engineer was led out, stripped of
his clothing, and tied securely to the stake.
Had refused to look on it would have
oeen taken as an act of cowar1ice on my
part. Realizing this, 1 stepped outside
the lodge and stood within ten feet of the
stake. Sewen wept and begged while
oeing made fast, but when they stepped
Jack he suddenly grew calm and asked
IF me:
sfTaylor, what does this all mean? What
ara they fTOinrr to do with Tna9sS
''They are going to torture you, Mr..
Sewell.'
care you a prisoner, too?''
''Yes, and they will torture me after
finishing you"
my Godl but this is awful. have
$500 at the camp. Won't they take that
I'd release us?''
Ireplied that if we were worth million
1ollars apiece we could not purchase our
liberty under the circumstances, and adj
Eised him to call up all his courage and
seek to die like man. Any sign of
weakness on his part would excite con-
.empt and increased torture, and the
better way was to defy them to do their
worst. I believe he tried his best to brace
up, but his nerves were dreadfully shat
:ered, and after three or four minutes he
oegan crying again. This had just the
effect predicted. Half a hundred boys
we're sent off to cut switches, and when
they returned they were told to go ahead
and apply them to the engineer. The
idea was to whip some courage into him,
but it was flat failure. Almost at the
irst blow the man cried out like
woman, and, his feet not having yet been
lied, he danced about like puppet.
called out to him to kick his tormentors,
but he paid no heed to my voice, and
after time stood stock still and let the
boys whip him until blood was drawn IN
score of places. ALI this time he cried
like boy four or five years old, and
heard some of the old warriors say that
he was the most cowardly white man
they had ever met. He may have lacked
courage, but 1 always believed his con-
duct to have been the result of his shat
tered mental and physical condition.
After the boys had switched him for
ten minutes they were called off, and
couple of warriors advanced with their
nluzzle loading rifles and began to fire
charges of powder into the poor fellows
flesh. Does it hurt? Well, sir, hell can't
be any worse. I've had dozen charges
fired into me and never felt any pain
to equal it. I'll take two bullets IN pref
erence to one charge of powder every
time. The first charge set him to dane
ing and screaming, and at the third or
fourth he kicked one of the warriors
over and became SO savage that they had
to fully bind him to the stake. They
fred thirty-four charges in all, and by
the time they had finished you could not
have told that Seweh was a white man.
His agony was something awful, and he
writhed about with such strength that
the stake had twice to be driven deeper.
His shrieks and screams, as aftsrward
knew, were heard distance of more than
two miles, and yet this was only the be-
ginning Of what they had in store for
him.
The next move was to apply the burn
ing sticks Some green sticks had been
put upon the fire on purpose, and three
or four warriors applied the burning ends
tov1rious portions Of the engineers body.
The pain fairly drove him crazy, and In
short time he tainted. Water was
brought from the stream and dashed over
him, and during this interval many war
riors crowded around me to see how ]
was bearing up.
'.Dogsi Do You think you can make
the Long Death cry like thats'' shouted
at them. "Here, pull up my trousers
and see where the cowardly Sioux shot
powder into my legs. Pull off my boots
and find where the Cheyeunes applied
the fire sticks Did weep like wonani
Go ask them. And when you ask that,